The present invention relates to neuromorphic and synaptronic systems, and in particular, to low-power, ultra-dense neuromorphic-synaptronic circuit chips implementing a spiking neural network.
Neuromorphic-synaptronic systems, also referred to as artificial neural networks, are computational systems that permit electronic systems to essentially function in a manner analogous to that of biological brains. Neuromorphic-synaptronic systems do not generally utilize the traditional digital model of manipulating 0s and 1s. Instead, neuromorphic-synaptronic systems create connections between processing elements that are roughly functionally equivalent to neurons of a biological brain. Neuromorphic-synaptronic systems may be comprised of various electronic circuits that are modeled on biological neurons and synapses.
In biological systems, the point of contact between an axon of a neuron and a dendrite on another neuron is called a synapse, and with respect to the synapse, the two neurons are respectively called pre-synaptic and post-synaptic. The essence of our individual experiences is stored in conductance of the synapses.